South Dakota Man To Plead In Old Grudge Killing

The lawyer for a 73-year-old South Dakota man accused of fatally shooting his long-ago classmate says his client will plead guilty but mentally ill to a second-degree murder charge.

Defense attorney Scott Bratland made the announcement Tuesday during a pretrial motions hearing in Madison. An arraignment for Carl Ericsson is scheduled for May 15.

Ericsson is charged in the January 31 killing of retired Madison High School teacher and track coach Norman Johnson. Johnson was shot twice in the face after answering the door at his house in Madison.

An arrest affidavit suggests the incident might have been sparked by a decades-old grudge stemming back to when Johnson and Ericsson were students at Madison High.